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Detective Van Zwam
Detective Van Zwam is a Flemish comics character in the Belgian comics series ''The Adventures of Nero'' by Marc Sleen. He is a brilliant detective and able to find clues from even the tiniest of evidence. Van Zwam was originally the main protagonist and the series was named after him, but after ten stories his more popular sidekick, Nero, became the main protagonist instead. Since then Van Zwam was recast as a side character. History In 1945 Willy Vandersteen's comics series ''Suske en Wiske'' was a major success in Flanders. The newspaper ''De Nieuwe Gids'' asked their political cartoonist Marc Sleen to create a comics series of their own to compete with ''Suske en Wiske'' 's popularity. Thus Sleen thought up a series centering around a smart detective, Van Zwam. The name was an idea of journalist Gaston Durnez, who based it on the Flemish dialect verb "zwammen" ("to talk bollocks"). Van Zwam made his first appearance in the very first ''The Adventures of Nero'' story "Het G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standaard Uitgeverij
Standaard Uitgeverij is a Belgian publisher, and the leading publisher in the Dutch language market of Flanders. History In 1919, the Standaard group was created, mainly consisting of a chain of bookshops ( Standaard Boekhandel), a newspaper (''De Standaard'') and a publishing house, the Standaard Uitgeverij. By the 1930s, the different branches became more and more independent, but only in the 1980s was the group finally disbanded. In 1994, the company was acquired by the Dutch group PCM Algemene Boeken BV. The company is best known for its comics and popular literature, but also publishes youth literature, non-fiction (mainly cartography, lexicography, and massmarket titles), and multimedia publications. A more purely literary imprint is Manteau, formerly an independent publisher founded by Angèle Manteau but now owned by Standaard. With ''Harry Potter'' and ''Kiekeboe'', Standaard Uitgeverij published the four bestselling books in Flanders in 2007. Other popular books were t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghent, Belgium
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in size only by Brussels and Antwerp. It is a port and university city. The city originally started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe, with some 50,000 people in 1300. The municipality comprises the city of Ghent proper and the surrounding suburbs of Afsnee, Desteldonk, Drongen, Gentbrugge, Ledeberg, Mariakerke, Mendonk, Oostakker, Sint-Amandsberg, Sint-Denijs-Westrem, Sint-Kruis-Winkel, Wondelgem and Zwijnaarde. With 262,219 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019, Ghent is Belgium's second largest municipality by number of inhabitants. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. When a relief is carved into a flat surface of stone (relief sculpture) or wood (relief carving), the field is actually lowered, leaving the unsculpted areas seeming higher. The approach requires a lot of chiselling away of the background, which takes a long time. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, particularly in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be simply added to or raised up from the background. Monumental bronze relief ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agent 327
''Agent 327'' is a Dutch action/comedy comic series by cartoonist Martin Lodewijk. It was a regular feature from 1966 until 1983, and again from 2000 to the present. The eponymous Agent 327 is a James Bond/Maxwell Smart-like Dutch secret agent who fights for "Righteousness and World Peace"; his looks are based on the character of Peter Gunn. Often partnered with the junoesque Olga Lawina (an agent of the Swiss Secret Service), his adventures take him around Europe and the rest of the world as he battles numerous villains, both fictional and parodies of real people. The song "Denk toch altijd met liefd' aan je moeder" by Gerda en Herman Timmerhout is a common feature in the comic, and is often used to hideously torture someone or provide a plot-turning emotional reaction. Publication history ''Agent 327'' debuted in 1966 as a feature in '' Pep'' magazine #21, written and drawn by Martin Lodewijk and published by Geïllustreerde Pers. ''Agent 327'' ran in ''Pep'' as a weekly 4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marabou Stork
The marabou stork (''Leptoptilos crumenifer'') is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae native to sub-Saharan Africa. It breeds in both wet and arid habitats, often near human habitation, especially landfill sites. It is sometimes called the "undertaker bird" due to its shape from behind: cloak-like wings and back, skinny white legs, and sometimes a large white mass of "hair". Taxonomy The marabou stork was formally described in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson. He placed it in the stork genus ''Ciconia'' and coined the binomial name ''Ciconia crumenifera''. He specified that locality as Senegal. The species is now placed with the lesser adjutant and the greater adjutant in the genus '' Leptoptilos'' that Lesson had introduced at the same time he described the marabou stork. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The common name marabou is thought to be derived from the Arabic word '' murābit'' meaning quiet or hermit-like. The s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuckoo
Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae respectively. The cuckoo order Cuculiformes is one of three that make up the Otidimorphae, the other two being the turacos and the bustards. The family Cuculidae contains 150 species which are divided into 33 genera. The cuckoos are generally medium-sized slender birds. Most species live in trees, though a sizeable minority are ground-dwelling. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution; the majority of species are tropical. Some species are migratory. The cuckoos feed on insects, insect larvae and a variety of other animals, as well as fruit. Some species are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species and giving rise to the metaphor ''cuckoo's egg' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his death in 1980. During World War II, he was the leader of the Yugoslav Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in German-occupied Europe. He also served as the president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 14 January 1953 until his death on 4 May 1980. He was born to a Croat father and Slovene mother in the village of Kumrovec, Austria-Hungary (now in Croatia). Drafted into military service, he distinguished himself, becoming the youngest sergeant major in the Austro-Hungarian Army of that time. After being seriously wounded and captured by the Russians during World War I, he was sent to a work camp in the Ural Mountains. He participated in some events of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Het Rattenkasteel
Het Rattenkasteel ("The Rat's Castle") is a 1948 comic book album in the Belgian comics series ''The Adventures of Nero'' by Marc Sleen. It's the fourth album in the series and acclaimed as one of Sleen's best. In the 2000s the story was collected and re-published by the Flemish newspapers Het Belang van Limburg and Gazet van Antwerpen in a special series entitled "De beste 10 volgens Marc Sleen" ("The best 10 according to Marc Sleen"), where Sleen choose his ten favorite "Nero" stories. He placed "Het Rattenkasteel" first. History Sleen was inspired by the castle "Hof ter Brugge" in Erps-Kwerps and the nickname for castle "Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ten Hove" in Waarschoot, which was literally called "Het Rattenkasteel". The story was pre-published in the Flemish newspaper ''De Nieuwe Gids'' from September 8 to December 24, 1948. As the character Detective Van Zwam was still the main protagonist of the series it initially ran in the newspaper as a "Van Zwam" story. When published i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brabant Killers
The Brabant killers, also named the Nivelles Gang in Dutch-speaking media ( nl, De Bende van Nijvel), and the mad killers of Brabant in French-speaking media (french: Les Tueurs fous du Brabant), are responsible for a series of violent attacks that mainly occurred in the Belgian province of Brabant between 1982 and 1985. A total of 28 people died and 22 were injured. The actions of the gang, believed to consist of a core of three men, made it Belgium's most notorious unsolved crime spree. The active participants were known as The ''Giant'' (; a tall man who may have been the leader); the ''Killer'' (''Le Tueur''; the main shooter) and the ''Old Man'' (''Le Vieux''; a middle aged man who drove). The identities and whereabouts of the "Brabant killers" are unknown. Although significant resources are still dedicated to the case, the most recent arrests are of the now-retired original senior detectives themselves. The gang abruptly ceased their activities in 1985. The ensuing chaotic in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Crested Grebe
The great crested grebe (''Podiceps cristatus'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display. Taxonomy The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Colymbus cristatus''. The great crested grebe is now the type species of the genus ''Podiceps'' that was erected by the English naturalist John Latham in 1787. The type locality is Sweden. The scientific name comes from Latin: the genus name ''Podiceps'' is from , "vent" and , "foot", and is a reference to the placement of a grebe's legs towards the rear of its body; the species name, ''cristatus'', means "crested". Three subspecies are recognised: * ''P. c. cristatus'' (Linnaeus, 1758) – Eurasia * ''P. c. infuscatus'' Salvadori, 1884 – Africa * ''P. c. australis'' Gould, 1844 – Australia, Tasmania, South Island of New Zealand Description The great creste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century in Europe. By the early 21st century, more than 1 billion were in existence. These numbers far exceed the number of cars, both in total and ranked by the number of individual models produced. They are the principal means of transportation in many regions. They also provide a popular form of recreation, and have been adapted for use as children's toys, general fitness, military and police applications, courier services, bicycle racing, and bicycle stunts. The basic shape and configuration of a typical upright or "safety bicycle", has changed little since the first chain-driven model was developed around 1885. However, many details have been improved, especially since the advent of modern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kick Scooter
A kick scooter (also referred to as a push-scooter or scooter) is a human-powered street vehicle with a handlebar, deck, and wheels propelled by a rider pushing off the ground with their leg. Today the most common scooters are made of aluminum, titanium, and steel. Some kick scooters made for younger children have 3 to 4 wheels (but most common ones have 2 wheels) and are made of plastic and do not fold. High-performance kickbikes are also made. Motorized scooters, historically powered by internal combustion engines, and more recently electric motors, are self-propelled kick scooters capable of speeds sometimes exceeding . Models and history Early scooters Kick scooters have been handmade in industrial urban areas in Europe and the United States since the 1920s or earlier, often as play items made for children to roam the streets. One common home-made version is made by attaching roller skate wheelsets to a board with some kind of handle, usually an old box. To turn, rider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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